In 2007, Amanda Knox, then a 20-year-old college student, made headlines when she became the center of a murder investigation. Knox’s roommate, 21-year-old British exchange student Meredith Kercher, was found dead in their apartment, partially undressed and with her throat slashed, while the two were studying abroad in Italy. Knox and her boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were accused of murdering Kercher as part of a sex game gone amiss.
Knox was arrested and faced trials in Italian court. She was initially found guilty on charges of murder, and spent four years in an Italian prison until 2011, when her conviction was overturned. Though Knox returned to the United States, she was retried and convicted again before being exonerated in 2015 by Italy’s Supreme Court.
Now, Knox is set to release a new book about her experiences, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal. Free: My Search for Meaning will be published in 2025 through Grand Central Publishing, an imprint of Hachette Book Group.
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In Free, Knox will recount her experience while incarcerated, as well as the process of reintegrating into society after her exoneration, per the book’s synopsis. The book will also recount untold stories, such as Knox’s return to Italy, as well as the relationship she’s forged with the man who sent her to prison. The book, however, will largely share Knox’s personal growth and “search for meaning and purpose.”
“When my roommate, Meredith, was brutally raped and murdered, I should have been a footnote in her tragic story,” Knox says in a statement shared with PEOPLE. “Instead, at 20 years old, I was accused of a horrific crime I had nothing to do with and catapulted into international infamy. After I was exonerated, I was facing an impossible question: Now what? I could never return to being an anonymous college student. I was the girl accused of murder.”
“I was trapped in that story. I didn’t feel free. It’s taken me over a decade, but I slowly learned to make meaning out of my misfortune,” the author continues. “I created my own freedom. It’s been said that pain is inevitable, but that suffering is a choice. Free is a guide to making that choice and making that choice matter — in my life and in yours. Because my circumstances may be extraordinary, but the challenges I’ve faced are universal.”
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Knox, now a criminal justice reform advocate, is also the author of the bestselling 2013 memoir Waiting to Be Heard, and co-hosts the Labyrinths podcast with her husband, Christopher Robinson. In March 2024, it was announced that Margaret Qualley will play Knox in an upcoming Hulu limited series based on Knox’s story; Knox and Monica Lewinksy will serve as producers on the show.
Free, described as “harrowing (and sometimes hilarious)” by its publisher, aims to be a book that “will speak to everyone persevering through hardship.”
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“Grand Central is thrilled to be publishing this deeply inspiring book,” says Colin Dickerman, senior vice president and editor-in-chief of Grand Central Publishing, in a statement. “Amanda Knox is a first-rate writer and a wonderful thinker and anyone who has struggled with finding their place in the world will discover deep solace in these pages.”
Free: My Search for Meaning will be published on March 25, 2025 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.
